In my work stints as a social worker, I had two opportunities to spend time here in spring 2009 and would like to share some of my photos. The overlap between traditional Inuit culture and the encroaching southern one is indeed interesting. e.g. a young mom with a smile packing shirt and toque

For more details, just click on Gjoa Haven tags and then blog entries.

Location:  Gjoa Haven, located about 250 kilometers above the Arctic Circle in the central part of the Nunavut Territory, and the most western region, the Kitikmeot Region. The name meaning is "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of blubbery sea mammals in the nearby waters, or as Uqsuqtuuq, or ‘place of plenty blubber’, because of the once plentiful seal. One of the fastest growing communities in the Kitikmeot Region, in 1961, its population was estimated at 100 and now well over 1000. This arctic hamlet is on the southeast coast of King William Island on the Northwest Passage

History: Of interest it is the nearest community to where the Franklin Expedition perished and often attracts many history buffs from around the world.

In 1903, Amundsen was attempting the first traverse of the Northwest Passage; by October the straits through which he was travelling began to ice up, and Amundsen put  his ship the Gjøa into a natural harbour on the southeast coast of King William Island. He was to stay there, in what Amundsen called "the finest little harbour in the world", for nearly two years.

Weather: When I worked in Nunavut we would have “ snow days”: a blizzard, a white out, snow blowing sideways, basically if one can not see the school or hamlet office across the street or uptown across the gully in Gjoa Haven, a snow day is declared and government offices and school are closed everyone locally “knows” that the snow is drifting but it has to be officially declared by four govt departments before closure. My Inuit friends could tell me how a blizzard is coming, the temperatures rising from minus 30oC to a balmy 10- 15 oC below and in the warmth there is a lull, a calm in which large flakes scatter through the night and almost Christmas like in March.

Cultural and Other Activities

• Traditional string and bone games… These circle games often done by the Elders involved a dice and when certain number rolled passing a rope with knots and untying or picking up stones in the center.
• Anglican Church
• Drum dancing
• Sewing and reading were my favorite activities in the winter when I went north, including making wall hangings.

Dogs: I really have a heart for dogs.

In many of the northern communities the only shots available are rabies usually given by a by-law officer….no vets. One of the men working at the clinic had 4 husky pups that he would eventually like to begin a dog team

From my blog title, not difficult to see I am a northern gal and Edmonton is my home base. Born and raised here as well as parents and grandparents, the roots go back a few generations.

Thought I would share some of my loves and a few dislikes on our city.

A few of the basics: The capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River  and is in Alberta's central region, most of this area is prairie, but on the edge of northern forest. The 2011 census population was 812,201, making it Canada's fifth-largest municipality and Alberta's second-largest city behind Calgary. There is a traditional rivalry between the two cities.

What I love about my city

• Four distinct seasons: clear, crisp, snowy winters with blue skies,

slowly approaching springs,   hot dry sometimes  wet summers but no humidity except after thunderstorms

and often  lingering colorful cool falls

. Green and gold the official colours of our university for good reason.

• Many kilometers of river valley trails for hiking, walking, cycling, x-c sking, dog walking or just getting away from the city in its midst.
• No matter what the season there is always a festival going on from Canada Day to

as here downtown on New Year's eve,

• Live theatre and  local music venues

• Small craft beer stores like Alley Kat where I can stop with my dogs

• Our cultural diversity and celebration of this such as with Heritage Days and  Good Friday march in inner city
• Political diversity: believe it or not there is a dash of orange in the sea of blue!

• Modes of transport from the LRT, city buses to a unique trolley car that runs over the High Level Bridge in the summer.

• Historic districts like Old Strathcona with 100 year old churches and Saturday farmer’s market in old bus barns.
• Odd things the city has done like the waterfall off the High Level Bridge   and postings in neighbourhoods of little library boxes
• Outdoor swimming in city pools with children's play parks,,,
• Hot air balloons in the summer

What I love less about my city…

• Snow at times in March, April, May and September…probably there is a record of a year where of a year where it snowed every month.
• Time needed to get to the International Airport 25 kms south, just recently introduced a city bus, previously taxi, car or sky shuttle
• Pot holes and construction season in summer
• Winter driving on the morning commute to work & speeders on the ring roads
• Money being spent on a new hockey arena when more worthwhile other development projects
• Lack of preservation of some historic buildings….if over 50 years old it has to go!
• Out lying suburbs that rally against social housing in their neighbourhood.
• New young forward looking mayor and city council

Are you a cat or dog person?

The answer is very obvious in this post which is a total PHOTO blog of my two dogs and a few others!

 Nanuq  is a husky-lab cross now about 7 years old, originally rescued from one of my work stints in the arctic. Nanuq is Inuktituk for “ polar bear “   and she has always been my baby polar bear! 

Dysis, lovely Siberian Husky, came to us as an older rescue before Nanuq

These two were always companions  both for romps in the snow,  lazying in my office or the back garden, on trips to Nunavut or with fresh hair cuts and neck scarves.

 Dysis left us all, this past January 2014 at age somewhere between 10 and 14 years.

Nanuq still does vigils on the back porch and now alone fights off the magpies, who try and steel her food. 

Maggie, a young lab and great hunting dog lives with her family just outside of Calgary and forever will chase the ball. 

Ilala, a young Rhodesian ridgeback, belongs to my daughter. Amelia and her husband Sean in Vancouver  and even attends church! 

Kittens and cats have only been temporary residents of my primarily dog household

BUT

Our relationship with cats evidently began 12,000 years ago at Gobekli Tepe,

the oldest known stone religious building, a Stonehenge built before metals. Here is a ferocious lion, on a small pillar

Source: http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/1236649

Recently during the SOCHI games, I marveled at the cats of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum,…

Check out this lovely video!

http://youtu.be/LaTU93l4dmA

Some seventy former street cats live at the Hermitage, where, they have their very own underground cat infirmary and three full-time volunteers to care for them.

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/russias-museum-cats.html

The Minister's Cat game was one of those games, which we often played on long car trips to entertain children and ourselves and produce abit of creativity with the English language....

1. The Minister's cat was an adventurous cat she ate avocados atrociously ...
2. The Minister's cat is a busy cat she beats beets.
3. The Minister's cat is a clergy cat who creeps churches cautiously.

Take the alphabet and add an adverb, verb, noun and adjective to the sentence all-starting with the same letter of your turn. Often some hilarious results or re-use of certain words like x-ray and zapped on the more difficult letters.

Do you remember such games on longer summer trips? I–Spy. Counting out of area license plates?

In these days of connection to cell phones, I-pads and other electronic devices I wonder what has been lost in family communication?

Are you a cat or dog person?

The coming of the blogs. Someone, somewhere created the very first Web log…The term was created to reflect the process of “logging the web”.  Would be interested dear readers, what triggered you to start blogging?

Xanga the original provider of this site was started in 1999. In 2004, both my daughter Amelia and I created blogs on Xanga… my blogging here has recorded not only family journeys, but my own work journey to the Canadian arctic and back!

Indeed, my Xanga blog,became a friend as did the community here.

Things changed in mid-2013 with the launch of Xanga-2 and move to WordPress. many bloggers moved on or closed accounts. My subscription runs out in July 2014.

Must confess that only return occassionally and log daily into my Facebook account. Formatting since the change does not seem to have the same flexibility but still enjoy a few of the " OLD FAITHFULS ". such as slmret.xanga.com and fauquet.xanga.com/   Take some time to browse their entries.

My daughter Amelia charted her travels to Africa and adventures at university WVU as a Canadian on the women's rowing team in http://that-canadian-rower.xanga.com/….and  currently now marrried  from Vancouver as an inner city RN and tri-athlete blogs  always a good read http://dreamingovertheocean.blogspot.ca/

This is one of my favorite shots from the Pentiction Challenge when a stolen kiss from her husband Sean.

Start beginning April First with a topic themed on something with the letterA, then on April second another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z.  It doesn't even have to be a word--it can be a proper noun, the letter used as a symbol, or the letter itself.  The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day.

See more at:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html#sthash.RhoGexF2.dpuf

 A is for apple and so I begin the first day of my month of blogging contest…working my way through the alphabet!

Apple Blossom time is right around the corner, I promise!

That is despite Alberta is still covered in snow and below freezing temperatures.

Apples play a major part of my summer activities, not only the lovely blossoms in my yard but picking and harvesting unwanted apples in the city.

As a board member of a local fruit rescue association OFRE.

.our motto is Finding  the Hidden fruit in our City,

local apples are the most common fruit.

http://operationfruitrescue.org/

We will send volunteer pickers to private residences to pick fruit upon request of the home owner, share it with the volunteers, home owner, charitable organizations like the Food Bank & Salvation Army and also organize canning & preserving events during the fall harvest season.

MUCH to look forward as the weather warms!